National Board of Review

PICTURE: Hugo
Top Ten of 2011 (in alphabetical order):

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Drive
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• The Ides of March
• J. Edgar
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorcese, Hugo
ACTOR: George Clooney, The Descendants
ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: 50/50- Will Reiser
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Descendants- Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango

FOREIGN FILM: A Separation

Top Five Foreign Films of 2011:
13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

DOCUMENTARY: Paradise Lost 3, Purgatory

Top Five Documentaries of 2011:
Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

TOP TEN INDEPENDENT FILMS OF 2011:
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Win Win

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy and Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
BREAKTHROUGH FILMMAKER: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
ENSEMBLE: The Help
SPOTLIGHT AWARD: Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, Shame, A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre)
NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Crime After Crime and Pariah
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FILMMAKING: The Harry Potter franchise

There's always a few given with the National Board of Review, for the first year settling for the second organization out of the gate in annual awards giving (shaking fist at the New York Film Critics...aarrgh!), one thing is that whenever Clint Eastwood has a new picture, it will show up somewhere no matter how middling the reviews or popular consensus might be (and J. Edgar is one of least doted on in quite some time), the other is George Clooney will come into play as well...this is his third Best Actor mention (previously cited for Michael Clayton and Up in the Air)...his directorial effort The Ides of March even made the top ten.  Still it's a pleasant enough surprise that Hugo, Scorcese's most daring undertaking in a while (a 3-D family film\ode to le cinema) took top honors, as well as the directors prize.  And on a happy note, whatever you may think individually or collectively, it's also pleasant enough that none of the top awards were the same given out by the New York Film Critics...let's keep this up!

Biggest winners:  Aside from Hugo, which now some legitimacy to play with...The Descendants came out strong (as expected eventually), the surprise screenplay mention for 50/50 may make an impression (however last year the NBR gave it's Original Screenplay nod to Buried, which proved not very much), Margin Call continues to be showing strong stealing away small prizes that should be bestowed to Martha Marcy May Marlene.  Acting wise the biggest winner is Tilda Swinton, whose We Need to Talk About Kevin, a dark and disturbing drama will need all the help it can get, as it will only net a tiny limited engagement run starting next week.  Clooney and Woodley need no such help, but Christopher Plummer's Supporting Actor mention for Beginners is a nice ease for what should hopefully prove a fruitful awards season for the seasoned vet.

Biggest losers: Martha Marcy May Marlene can't get arrested...the Indie Spirits were kind, but this kind of film will need help to weather the next couple of months, and is deserving of such...not be cruel but Elizabeth Olsen's performance is so vastly superior to other salivated-over breakthrough Felicity Jones in Like Crazy, I can't quite fathom the snub. Shame was relegated to indie top ten only, plus a shared honor to Michael Fassbender's tremendous year-- may spell trouble down the road, hopefully the films release this weekend will reverse this.  Glenn Close may be in trouble as the early organizations have all ignored her labor of love project Albert Nobbs.